Offshore floating vertical axis wind turbines, dynamics modelling state of the art. Part III: Hydrodynamics and coupled modelling approaches

The need to further exploit offshore wind resources has pushed offshore wind farms into deeper waters, requiring the use of floating support structures to be economically sustainable. The use of conventional wind turbines may not continue to be the optimal design for floating applications. Therefore it is important to assess other alternative configurations in this context. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are one promising configuration, and it is important to first understand the coupled and relatively complex dynamics of floating VAWTs to assess the technical feasibility. As part of this task, a series of articles have been developed to present a comprehensive literature review covering the various areas of engineering expertise required to understand the coupled dynamics involved in floating VAWTs. This third article focuses on approaches to develop an efficient coupled model of dynamics (considering aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural and mooring line dynamics, and control dynamics) for floating VAWTs, as well as suitable ‘semi-analytical’ hydrodynamic models for this type of coupled dynamics models. Emphasis is also placed on utilising computationally efficient models and programming strategies. A comparison of the various forces acting on a floating VAWT with the three main floating support structure (spar, semi-submersible and tension-leg-platform) is also presented to highlight the relative dominant forces and hence importance of model accuracy representing these forces. Lastly a concise summary covering this series of articles is presented to give the reader an overview of this interdisciplinary research area. This article has been written both for researchers new to this research area, outlining underlying theory whilst providing a comprehensive review of the latest work, and for experts in this area, providing a comprehensive list of the relevant references where the details of modelling approaches may be found.